Central Queensland’s tourism and economic development boss has welcomed news business woman Gina Rinehart is looking to develop Great Keppel Island. 

It is understood Ms Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting has plans to develop the land into a resort island. 

Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll says, “We welcome this investment from a great Australian company to this region on Queensland’s southern Great Barrier Reef.” 

If approved, the development will stretch over 970.9 hectares of the island and is believed to cost around $50 million.

Queensland researchers are turning blood samples from epilepsy patients into functioning human brain tissue, allowing for them to test the effectiveness of different anti-seizure drugs.

University of Queensland scientist Ernst Wolvetang hopes the approach will take the guesswork out of prescribing medication to patients.

Roughly a third of people with epilepsy never achieve effective seizure control.

Professor Wolvetang says, “"Our approach, because it is personalised to the patient with the organoids … has the potential to fundamentally transform epilepsy care."

New South Wales residents are set to enjoy new freedoms earlier than planned after the premier announced the road map would be fast tracked.

The next wave of freedoms was set to be introduced on December 1st but have been pushed forward to November 8th for fully vaccinated locals.

Unvaccinated people will now have to wait until the state achieves the 95% double dose target, which is set to happen mid-December.

The decision was made after a crisis cabinet meeting took place on Monday to discuss the roadmap.

A flight from Los Angeles touched down in Sydney with no border or quarantine restrictions for passengers who were fully vaccinated.

Aside from hundreds of federal government flights during the pandemic, these are the first regular Qantas international flights since the Australian and NSW governments relaxed restrictions on overseas travel.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said, “This day has been a long time coming for our people and our customers. It’s wonderful to see Australians able to reunite with loved ones after such a long time apart.”

Tesla founder Elon Musk has announced he will give six billion dollars to end world hunger, under one condition. 

The announcement comes after president of the UN World Food Program David Beasley said a six billion dollar donation could help solve world hunger. 

Mr Musk took to Twitter to say he would foot the bill if the World Food Program could explain how the money would be used. 

A small number of businesses including Townsville City council, Queensland Country Bank and Legal Sense NQ came together recently to kickstart the project.

The Jigsaw project aims to find opportunities within the community connecting an individual to employment based on their interests and skill sets.

Joanne Lynham is a mother of a child with autism and wanted to use her daughter’s employment rejections as fuel to turn it into a business.  

The group says, “Everyone benefits from building an inclusive community.”

The regional transport service in Emerald has opted to switch its fleet of diesel-powered buses to hydrogen fuel cell electric ones.

Each year, the fleet of Emerald buses consume over one million litres of fuel and produce 3,100 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

The family-owned company has sit a net zero emissions target by 2040, 10 years ahead of the federal government’s current deadline.

Lauren Cavati runs private mental health clinic Deep Speak and has just released her first two books in the series.

Mrs Cavati says she wrote the book implementing cognitive behavioural therapy which is based on people’s thoughts predicting how they feel and subsequently how they act.

She created the series after she “wanted a resource story book to show kids how to use their brain to help their mental health but couldn’t find anything.”